i’m on the spectrum myself, but i was raised before awareness was widespread. i overcame it, and i’m thankful because it’s a lonely place inside my head compared to the joy of sharing interactions with people IRL.
That’s absolutely fair; I guess, more so, what I was trying to push against is the implication that eye contact is a necessary component of sharing interactions with people IRL (and, rather, it’s perfectly possible to be IRL with others without eye contact), if that distinction makes more sense.
Right but also people rarely expect constant 100% eye contact. The occasional glance to show connection is actually more than enough for basically everyone and can be learned to done pretty easily. Its not needed but even the simple glance of eye contact makes people feel way more seen and heard.
Then you can just talk past each other the rest of the time as is standard.
This. Just 3 or 4 seconds of contact, then look away. A minute or 2 later, do it again. It becomes ingrained eventually. Don’t stare into someone’s soul the entire time. That’s creepy and can be taken as aggression.
i’m on the spectrum myself, but i was raised before awareness was widespread. i overcame it, and i’m thankful because it’s a lonely place inside my head compared to the joy of sharing interactions with people IRL.
That’s absolutely fair; I guess, more so, what I was trying to push against is the implication that eye contact is a necessary component of sharing interactions with people IRL (and, rather, it’s perfectly possible to be IRL with others without eye contact), if that distinction makes more sense.
Right but also people rarely expect constant 100% eye contact. The occasional glance to show connection is actually more than enough for basically everyone and can be learned to done pretty easily. Its not needed but even the simple glance of eye contact makes people feel way more seen and heard.
Then you can just talk past each other the rest of the time as is standard.
This. Just 3 or 4 seconds of contact, then look away. A minute or 2 later, do it again. It becomes ingrained eventually. Don’t stare into someone’s soul the entire time. That’s creepy and can be taken as aggression.